Just yesterday, we detailed Android applications receiving a new licensing service. Currently, the Android Developers blog has come up with additional news pertaining to the licensing server. They address the key technical issues related to developers accessing the server. Android Market client app since 1.5 includes this service so users operating on Android 1.5+ will easily be able to benefit from it.
The system is protected with a private or public key and requests to the sever operate with a public key. On the other hand reverts from the server access the private key, a set of keys are allotted to one publisher’s account. Publishers cannot straightaway contact the server. The application IPCs to the Android Market client which then gets in touch with the server.
The SDK equips a tool set, the License Verification Library (LVL) that offers direct entry points through which users can ask questions to the server and access the results. Additionally LVL accommodates modules which can be utilized for the implementation of certain licensing policies. It is outfitted as an Android Library project and carries a testing framework.
The Android Market website’s publisher-facing section equips a web UI to assist in key management. This comes with a setup for testing and production. If the device is off-network then the developer will not be able to access the server. Thus they could render a cache licensing status, which the LVL can use since it has been designed with pre-built modules that support it.
Those app designers who are interested in using this service will have to go through the authoritative documentation titled as ‘Licensing Your Applications’.